CABOT

Early history

The city of Cabot sprang up as a small settlement around a refueling station on the Cairo & Fulton Railroad after it bypassed Austin. The settlement first appeared in 1873 and is thought to have been named after railroad executive George Cabot Ward. The First Baptist Church was established in 1876, and the Cabot United Methodist Church in 1881. G. W. Grandberry began publication of the first newspaper in 1885, named "The Guard". Grandberry, along with James Milton Park served as the towns medical doctors. By 1889 businesses began growing alongside the railroad tracks. Businesses included six general stores, two drugstores, a hotel owned by James Charles Boyd, James Adam's livery stable, and the Neely brothers cotton gin. The Bank of Cabot (later merged into Centennial Bank) was founded in 1903. The city of Cabot was officially incorporated November 9, 1891, as the 139th city in Arkansas.

Cabot was often overshadowed in northern Lonoke County by what at the time was the much larger city of Austin (originally named Oakland). However, Cabot experienced growth during the 1950s and 1960s, due to its proximity to the Little Rock Air Force Base in nearby Jacksonville which opened in 1955, as well as due to the "white flight" occurring in response to the racial discord in Little Rock, Arkansas caused by school desegregation and its following crisis.

Bedroom community

In 1972, the Little Rock School District, slow to comply with the 1954 US Supreme Court case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, was forcibly ordered by federal courts to immediately desegregate the school district. As a result, tensions rose and during the 1980s and 1990s Little Rock school district teachers repeatedly went on strike. A "white exodus" occurred with many residents choosing to relocate to smaller communities around Little Rock, including Cabot, Benton, Bryant, Conway, and Maumelle instead of choosing to continue supporting full integration. Over time, new arrivals to the state chose to live in these towns (now veritable suburbs) because, by some educational indicators, the school districts were more successful.

Cabot received many of the families that were relocating during that time period. As a result, a "commuter culture" developed because many residents that had children in Cabot schools made the commute to Little Rock to work daily. 40% of military personnel working at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville live in Cabot because of the higher cost of living in Little Rock and Jacksonville. This, coupled with the perceived higher quality of life and easily accessed work opportunity, has resulted in a "boomtown." As more people moved to Cabot to join the commuter culture, the tax base grew and, as a result, the Cabot School District steadily developed into one of the top-performing districts in the state.

Currently, the Cabot School District encompasses the north end of Lonoke County. The bulk of the county's population today can be found in approximately the same area, containing the county's most populous and second most populous cities — Cabot and Ward, respectively — in addition to Austin, which are among Arkansas' fastest growing communities.

Recent history

A devastating tornado hit downtown Cabot during the afternoon of March 29, 1976, killing five people and destroying multiple buildings. During the rebuilding of the city, it was decided to build a new city hall, municipal courtroom, library (since relocated), and police station on the site of the debris-filled dividing point between the east and west sections of Main Street, creating City Plaza. Arkansas Highway 89, which follows the same path as West Main Street in Cabot, was redirected around City Plaza along one block of Second Street, to continue its path along Pine Street just south of the Cabot High School campus.

Cabot's population has more than quintupled from the 1980s to today, from under 5,000 residents to over 26,000. New housing starts, as seen by new subdivided developments, now cover the town.

On August 10, 2006, Cabot Junior High School North experienced a devastating fire which was believed to have started as a small electrical fire in the library caused by a faulty light bulb. Although there were 100 people in the building at the time, there were no injuries. The building burned from 2:30 p.m. to about 9:00 p.m., and the structure was a total loss. Cabot Fire and Police Departments say that this is one of the worst structure fires to have ever occurred in Cabot. The school was only about eight years old. It was rebuilt and reopened about three years later.